Readers react to Sen. Ted Cruz, the University of Missouri and Gov. Sam Brownback

Ted Cruz

Voters should beware of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

An example of Cruz’s mean-spirited lack of judgment began in 1997, when Michael Haley was arrested for stealing a calculator at Wal-Mart. This merited a two-year prison term, but prosecutors mistakenly labeled Haley a habitual criminal and fought to give him 16 years.

Cruz was solicitor general of Texas, and instead of correcting the mistake Cruz fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep Haley locked up. Imagine the cost to Texas taxpayers.

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Cruz talks of Christian values, but he does not know the meaning of mercy or compassion. He is a dangerous zealot with no common sense.

Haley served six years, and all because this brutal politician has no business wielding power. Power without mercy, compassion and common sense is the recipe for a dictator.

Beware of Sen. Ted Cruz.

John Kovelan

Lenexa

MU unbroken

Broken, you say (2-7, A1, “Time to fix a broken Mizzou”)? It makes for a nice headline, but there is nothing broken about the University of Missouri.

MU is a first-class institution of higher education that offers unbiased access to its resources. Students from around the world who want to use college as a foundation for their future success and prosperity will always be attracted to MU, along with a good many donors and other supporters.

And that’s a headline worth promoting.

Tom Owens

Kansas City

Brownback’s plan

Everything Gov. Sam Brownback does is geared toward moving the benefits of society to the upper economic tier and increasing the burden on the middle class and below. In addition, he is serving as a canary in the coal mine for the GOP.

If we continue to elect Republicans without a significant change in the GOP party platform, we will see Brownback’s disastrous tax policies continue to develop nationwide. Today’s GOP is not the GOP of my mother’s and her parents’ generations.

As an electorate, we must send a message that we expect people in the middle class on down to get the support they need to keep America great.

Kathryn Moore

Manhattan, Kan.

Bernie Sanders

I agree with Derek Donovan’s Feb. 8 column, “Readers ready, weary over election 2016.” The “internecine struggles” within our two major political parties “this year … are as significant as any I can recall.”

I respectfully disagree that “it’s too early to make grand pronouncements on how equitably Election 2016 has been covered at this point.”

A populist uprising is clearly under way that crosses party lines. Many voters have had enough of politics as usual and are supporting outsider candidates — especially Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders and Republican Donald Trump.

There is, however, a world of difference between these two and the coverage they have received.

The Tyndall Report reported in December that Trump had been on network nightly news programs for a total of 234 minutes compared with 10 minutes for Sanders. And yet Sanders is clearly in the running for the Democratic nomination.

This year’s primary season is the most potentially consequential in a long time. We are witnessing an epic struggle for the souls of the two major political parties.

If Sanders succeeds in returning the Democratic Party to its populist roots and wins the presidency, we will have made history.

Winston Apple

Independence

Telling time, news

To the local television news stations: Would you please hire someone who can tell time.

You advertise your first evening newscast as beginning on the hour, but it consistently begins at least two minutes earlier. The first two minutes usually covers the breaking and important news stories of the day.

Because I have more than 200 television channels to choose from, the chance that I would be watching your programming immediately before your newscast is pretty remote.

Because of this, I always miss what I think are the most important news stories of the day.

Thank goodness I have my Kansas City Star where I can get the complete news.